In general, an inspection or a test of electrical characteristics of a packaged or molded semiconductor device, more particularly, an integrated circuit (IC) is performed by utilizing as an auxiliary apparatus an electrical connecting apparatus such as an inspection socket, that is, a test socket to which a semiconductor device is removably attached.
There is provided an electrical connecting apparatus of such a type including an IC holder that can hold an IC as a device under test having a plurality of lead electrodes, and a contactor holder in which a plurality of contactors (probe needles) are arranged so that the arrangement of their tips corresponds to that of the lead electrodes, wherein the IC holder holding the IC is attached to the contactor holder to be positioned, and the lead electrodes are contacted with the contactors respectively (Reference Document 1).
[Reference Document 1]: Japanese Patent Application. Disclosure No. 7-229949
In the aforementioned conventional electrical connecting apparatus, the IC holder comprises a receptacle for receiving the IC, a pair of upper guides having a flat upper guiding surface for guiding the IC supplied from its upper side toward the receptacle, and a pair of lower guides having an arc-shaped lower guiding surface for guiding the IC guided by the upper guide further accurately to the receptacle.
When the IC holder is pushed down to the contactor holder, both of the upper guides are opened to effect the function of the upper guiding surface. When the IC holder is pulled up from the contactor holder, the upper guides are swung along the arc-shaped lower guiding surface so that they contact the lead electrodes of the IC and thrust the lead electrodes to the tips of the contactors.
The IC is moved together with the IC holder. When the IC holder is lowered to the vicinity of the lowest position, the lead electrodes of the IC begin to be thrust to the tips of the contactors by the upper guides. With the IC itself being thrust to the receptacle, or with the lead electrodes being thrust by the tips of the contactors, movement or displacement of the IC against the contactors is stopped.
However, in the above electrical connecting apparatus, since the receptacle and the lower guides are provided in the IC holder that moves up and down against the contactor holder, the IC received on the receptacle may be displaced against the receptacle due to vibration caused by the movement of the IC holder or the angular rotation of the lower guides etc., and the lead electrodes of the IC may be thrust to the tips of the contactors under such a state. In such a case, the lead electrodes of the IC will not contact the tips of the contactors accurately, and thus no accurate test will be performed.
To solve the above problem, the above conventional electrical connecting apparatus is configured such that the lower guides position the IC to the receptacle and also the contactors.
However, the dimensional accuracy of a sealed IC has slight tolerance resulting from various causes such as the dimensional accuracy of a die used for a package or a mold. Thus, there exists slight difference in dimension among ICs of the same type.
If such ICs are tested on the above conventional electrical connecting apparatus, some ICs will be displaced against the contactors along with the movement of the IC holder.